At Least We Can Change the Date - and Celebrate!
A 2020 Holiday Letter
I saw a wonderful holiday letter this week. It started out with the news that a child in the family was diagnosed with a life-threatening illness earlier this year. (How was this wonderful, you may very well ask? Stay with me...)
It acknowledged right away how easy it would be to focus only on the enormous challenges and struggles of the year. (And rightfully so).
And then, by the third sentence, it began expressing thankfulness and gratitudes, which continued to fill the remainder of the full 8 1/2 x 11" page.
It expressed endless and sincere appreciation for numerous big and small things that allowed the family to survive the traumas of the year including the people, places, and things that buffered, lessened, or prevented even worse hardships.
Likely you could (or have) written a similar letter yourself - noting the ways the hardships and heartbreaks of 2020 have touched your life, and how you survived.
At Least We Can Change the Date
The year of 2020 tested nearly everyone in unexpected ways. One might hazard a guess that no one had quite the year that they intended as they wrapped up 2019 and set their new intentions and resolutions for 2020.
Most people, including myself, can't wait to close the chapter of this calendar year...we are so eager to see something visible change, and if that's just the year marked at the end of the date, we will take it!
Celebration is Part of Transition. (Yes, even in 2020).
Transitions of any sort deserve recognition.
Recognition of what was endured and survived...recognition of next steps and challenges that lie ahead...recognition of ongoing questions...
And, if we look closely, transitions also deserve our celebration. Celebration of the strength and resilience, of the learning and the growth, and of survival through adversity. Celebration of any piece or person that contributed to waking up and making choices of how we want to live another moment of another day.
Celebration and gratitude, feeling these fully in our body (not just our intellect) aren't just superficial or casual moments of "Pollyanna-ism". They are present in numerous cultures, including those that have experienced horrendous atrocities and hardships. Physiologically, they also help re-wire our brain.
And we truly need ways to anchor in these tools - strengths, coping, resilience, gratitude, determination, and so on - because we know not everything will be better once we change the calendar page. We don't want 2020's lessons and learning to disappear with the year. We will face these and similar challenges again in 2021 and beyond.
We are living history, right now, and we have the opportunity to reinforce our growth through our celebration.
Community of Gratitude
Celebration may feel like a strong word to use in response to 2020. The word "gratitude" may be more palatable. Whichever is most fitting for you, will you join in this transition with a personal acknowledgement of what was "good" for you in 2020? Or, what helped you to endure the bad?
Will you share one (or more) of your gratitudes for 2020? Drop your gratitude in the comments on the Social Justice: Compassion to Action facebook page post by clicking HERE, or share on this page below this blog. Let's fill the comments with gratitudes as we send off 2020 and celebrate the growth, learning, and resilience we carry forward with us into 2021.
Goodbye, 2020! Hello and Happy New Year, 2021!
You matter. You can make a difference. I'm so thankful you're here!
